Series One Overview

Revivals are usually cursed. As anyone who saw the modern day versions of Hitch "Hikers Guide to the Galaxy", "The Avengers" and "Randall and Hopkirk Deceased" will testify. Therefore, a revival of Doctor Who could have easily gone in a similar direction and killed the franchise completely. However, it has compounded its biggest critics by making a cult/genre show for a mainstream audience and succeeding.

There have been a number of successes about the series. Arguably the biggest impact has been it's two leads, Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. Indeed Piper has probably proved everyone to such an extent that she is now seen as an actress. She has been consistently brilliant, whether it's challenging the Doctor about his background, comedy flirting with Captain Jack or battling Daleks in the finale. Arguably her best performance comes in episode 8, Father's Day, which goes back to the death of her own father.

We have a re-invented Doctor, with a history and compounded by his sense of loneliness. Eccleston's performance has done the unimaginable, creating a unique interpretation of the Doctor in a relatively short amount of screen time. A Doctor that now has more facets than any of his previous incarnations, defined by the Time War which explains his behaviour during Dalek and his initial reluctance to have a companion. For me though, the 9th Doctor is a more passive figure, inspiring others rather than saving the day himself. Evidence includes Rose in… Rose, Charles Dickens in The Unquiet Dead, Mickey in World War III, Cathica in The Long Game and Nancy in The Doctor Dances. This Doctor inspires humanity, and maybe he wants humanity to become better so that he doesn't feel quite so lonely.

After collecting Rose and facing The End of the World, one of the most impressive opening prologues has to be The Unquiet Dead. For me, it was the defining episode of whether this series would work, as this is the type of story the classic series did so well. I knew that this episode and this series would work from that prologue when Mrs Peace opened her eyes, seemingly awoken by the dead. It was classic Doctor Who. Scary, thrilling and funny.

Another highlight has being the production. This doesn't necessarily mean special effects, but the creation of realistic aliens and androids along with excellent models and make up. The series trailer promoted the spaceship crashing through Big Ben is undoubtedly one of the best moments in the series. We have some extraordinary creations as seen in The End of the World and the digitally created Reapers.

A complete re-think on the Daleks in this series has been another joy. Since there last appearance, the Daleks have been the subject of comedy shows and dodgy Kit Kat adverts, so the return of them as a terrifying force in three of the episodes of the new series has been a welcome relief. The terrifying dialogue, combined with Joe Ahearne's tight direction gave us a Dalek for the 21 century. And thank bloody god that they could climb stairs. Dalek was arguably one of the finest pieces of television drama ever made.

Amongst the highlights has been the high standard of quest artists in the programme. Despite Zoë Wannamaker's bitchy Cassandra, or Simon Callow's contemplative Dickens my favourite has to be Simon Pegg's Editor. It's just the right side of camp to be a menace, yet highly entertaining. Just imagine watching The Long Game without Pegg. It would arguably have been a contender for the worst story of the season.

We have also had a more emotional series than before. While it was subtly used in the earlier episodes, it started to have more of an impact later on the series, with Father's Day and with the revelations about Nancy and the child in The Doctor Dances giving us tear-inducing endings to their respective storylines. However, for a fan of the series, the middle of The Parting of the Ways where the Doctor sent Rose back to her mother and boyfriend rather than letting her face certain death on board Satellite 5. It was one of the optimistic moments of the series, thinking that the Doctor would have had a chance to save the planet, and one of the most heart-wrenching moments when you realised that he's tricked Rose into going back into her own time.

The final highlight of the series, I shall reserve some small mention for the last two two-part stories. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances gave us a period story beautifully created with a great sense of romance, giving us a story that will scare children for a long time to come an for giving us one-liners that would be worthy of a place in a sitcom. Russell T Davies finally managed to compound the relatively few criticisms against his writing with a stunning space epic that gave us probably the grandest alien invasion story of all time after one of the cheekiest stories of all time given the satirical outlook on programmes such as Big Brother and The Weakest Link.

If I was being hypercritical of the new series, it would probably be that Block 1; consisting of Rose and The Aliens of London storyline was probably the weakest. That's probably due to lack of experience more than anything else. The editing of the final few moments of Rose destroyed any danger that Jackie was in, while Aliens of London was let down by some very hammy acting, with David Verrey winning an award for chewing the most scenery. I suppose my disappointment with Aliens of London/World War III is that it should have been the best alien invasion story ever but sadly it wasn't.

If there is one thing that I've learnt, is that never get caught up in hype, because things will more than likely frustrate rather than entertain. So, I shall say no more in this review and simply hope that David Tennant will be fantastic.